Lives of the Stoics Audiobook By Ryan Holiday, Stephen Hanselman cover art

Lives of the Stoics

The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius

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Lives of the Stoics

By: Ryan Holiday, Stephen Hanselman
Narrated by: Ryan Holiday
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About this listen

Instant New York Times Advice & Business best seller, USA Today best seller, and Wall Street Journal number one best seller!

A New York Times Noteworthy Pick and a "stellar work" by Publishers Weekly

From the best-selling authors of The Daily Stoic comes an inspiring guide to the lives of the Stoics, and what the ancients can teach us about happiness, success, resilience, and virtue.

Nearly 2,300 years after a ruined merchant named Zeno first established a school on the Stoa Poikile of Athens, Stoicism has found a new audience among those who seek greatness, from athletes to politicians and everyone in between. It's no wonder; the philosophy and its embrace of self-mastery, virtue, and indifference to that which we cannot control is as urgent today as it was in the chaos of the Roman Empire.

In Lives of the Stoics, Holiday and Hanselman present the fascinating lives of the men and women who strove to live by the timeless Stoic virtues of Courage. Justice. Temperance. Wisdom. Organized in digestible, mini-biographies of all the well-known - and not so well-known - Stoics, this book vividly brings home what Stoicism was like for the people who loved it and lived it, dusting off powerful lessons to be learned from their struggles and successes.

More than a mere history book, every example, from Epictetus to Marcus Aurelius - slaves to emperors - is designed to help the listener apply philosophy in their own lives. Holiday and Hanselman unveil the core values and ideas that unite figures from Seneca to Cato to Cicero across the centuries. Among them are the idea that self-rule is the greatest empire, that character is fate; how Stoics benefit from preparing not only for success, but failure; and learn to love, not merely accept, the hand they are dealt in life. A treasure of valuable insights and stories, this book can be visited again and again by any listener in search of inspiration from the past.

©2020 Ryan Holiday (P)2020 Penguin Audio
Greek & Roman Motivation & Self-Improvement Personal Success Philosophy Stoicism Career Inspiring

Critic reviews

"Whether you're a general or a gardener, a stockbroker or a senator, there is much to learn from Ryan Holiday’s excellent Lives of the Stoics." (Senator Ben Sasse)

“Holiday and Hanselman (coauthors of The Daily Stoic) explain in this stellar work the implications of Stoic dedications to truth, wisdom, resilience, and character...This illuminating collection of biographies makes great use of Stoic wisdom to demonstrate the tradition’s values for any reader interested in ancient philosophy.” (Publishers Weekly [starred review])

“An introductory guide to the luminaries of Greco-Roman ethical philosophy.... Thoughtfully complicates Stoicism. Rather than emphasizing Spock-like, unemotional rigor (as pop culture often does), the authors reveal how the philosophy often debated its identity.... At a time when public nobility is hard to come by, this is a good reminder of the power of ethical leadership.” (Kirkus Reviews)

What listeners say about Lives of the Stoics

Highly rated for:

Informative Biographies Detailed Historical Accounts Personal Narration Inspiring Philosophical Stories
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Great Audiobook

Great book. I learned a lot and gave me insight on how connected and the butterfly effect if you will, of the Stoic philosophers and how they're all tied into each other.

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this book's value goes up each time you listen

great book that I will listen to over and over again. I'm so glad that Ryan did the reading for his book

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The Best

Very good content and delivery by the author. Ryan Holiday is the man, worth the investment.

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Narrator Needs To Relax

Amazing and timely story, told aloud like an emotional TV Pundit arguing with himself. Narration needlessly exaggerated and harmfully stressful upon anyone who hears it.

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11 people found this helpful

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Practical examples of Stoicism in daily practice

I loved this book! I will return to it again and again. The author/narrator sounds really rushed though as if he was trying to read the whole book with one breath.

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2 people found this helpful

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Living As A Stoic

There’s a book in bodies how to live as a stoic. This book taught me a lot about the day-to-day living of a stoic. This book gives an examples on how the stoics became who they were. This book gives examples of how to live as a stoic.

Read this book if you are trying to live as a stoic. The top lesson this book taught me was that all we control is our response to events.

Every event has two handles—one by which it can be carried, and one by which it can’t. If your brother does you wrong, don’t grab it by his wronging, because this is the handle incapable of lifting it. Instead, use the other—that he is your brother, that you were raised together, and then you will have hold of the handle that carries.

If you found this helpful let me know.

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Historically relevant

There are some excellent lessons you can take out of this book. I had no idea the various challenges many of the stoics went through. The authors do a great job of detailing this, while expressing some of the best ideas each stoic gave us.

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Ryan Holiday is the best

Just another amazing work from the best modern stoic. Great listen if you want to learn about some of the greats and the moments that made them stoic legends. Can’t recommend this work enough, definitely a must read for all those getting read into stoic history. Great stuff!!!

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Audiobooks About Stoicism Make People Angry

I follow Ryan Holiday on social media, YouTube, etc and I like the person and his message, and associate his daily, positive, uplifiting messages with his voice. Regardless, I prefer when authors narrate their books because it takes away from the message/content when it's narrated by someone who did not do the work to write it. I find myself as annoyed by trained voice actors narrating non-fiction as the reviewers are here, but I just breathe through it and let it go, cause stoicism and such.

Overall though, I don't have a problem with the narration. For this audiobook it's rhythmic and to the point. I do sense that his style of narrating has changed hopefully not as a result of the negative reviews or pressure from Audible producers, but I am grateful that he's still narrating his own work.

I understand the disappointment and frustration, but keep on practicing Stoicism!


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Great read!

Enjoyed learning about many of the stoics. Looking forward to taking a deep dive on a few of their writings.

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